Working in Comics: Part 3: Your place

Ok… Image does not reflect the point of the post, but I don’t want to rip off other’s creative work, so… here it is. I did this a couple of years ago for a great friend of mine who was running a website related for the acknowledge of the value of water in Third World countries.

(For the previous Woking in comics, please see part 1 here and part 2 here)

Your Place

Your place while working in comics is hard to maintain

Your place while working in comics is realize that rarely is a team effort

Your place while working in comics makes you work hard HARD hours

Your place while working in comics means to be alone from yourself

Your place while working in comics means to be alone from free time

Your place while working in comics means to be alone from your family

Your place while working in comics means to be alone from your money

Your place while working in comics means to be alone for a huuuge amount of time daily.

Your place while working in comics is face a selfish environment. Since it’s a rare industry, everyone holds their stuff and protect their space fiercely.

Your place while working in comics won’t show anyone that will upgrade you to a higher level, You run on your own. Best case scenario is to team up with great and fortunate artists whom have both talent, luck and a trusted publisher. Your success lays on your talent and the next “Your place while working in comics…”

Your place while working in comics helps you develop several helpful skills: Businessman/womanship (helps you sell your craft); languages (if you don’t speak English, working in comics forces you learn english language in order to be able to communicate yourself to those that can pay/publish/review you); marketing skills (You need to trade: Page rates, your free time, advertising your works); Optimizing time (Need to work for 8 hours what you’ll do in 12. If you work 12 hours, you need to produce what you do in 15, and go on); Psychologist skills (since you don’t live next door to your publisher / editor / writer / penciler, working in comics makes you learn fast and harshly that you need to filter who is offering a good and profitable deal and who’s selling you air); multitasking skills (you will always do more than what you intended to do at the beginning: I have penciled, lettered, doing flats, write, research for possible publishers for a client in a certain country, make inquires, learn about taxes, learn about home economics, and make a film documentary out of it. All I wanted to do is inking, XD)

So, Your place while working in comics demands you to do all those things I have names on the previous paragraph in order to accomplish success by yourself, but be talented, plus have a touch of luck, plus get to know the right people, plus…

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About DOCINKS

Born in Barcelona, 1977, now I live in Chile. I'm currently working as a inker or letterer for several American, New Zealand or UK publishers like Beyond Reality Media, Alterna Comics, Advent Comics, Insane Comics, IDW Publishing, Ariete Producciones and Dogitia among others.